When I was afforded the opportunity to join the coaching staff of the Toronto Marlies in 2015-16, I wasn’t exactly new to coaching theory. For one, I was attentive as a player in both college and pro, but I also grew up with a Dad who played in the NHL then went on to coach a number of years in the minors. I had discussions about strategy and was in the offices to hear how decisions get made.
What I saw with the Marlies, though, wasn’t what I had seen from my Dad’s teams in late ’90s, or heard from my own coaches when I played. Stats were obviously a bigger thing, but there were new tactical concepts to be introduced to, many passed down from Mike Babcock to the Leafs AHL franchise, and many preferred by Sheldon Keefe himself.
Perhaps the most useful new idea in my estimation, at least when it came to defending, was the Babcock-termed strategy of “cut-offs,” which in plain English is running interference on opposing players who aren’t directly involved around the puck as they skate back towards your end.
Constantly.
Think of a team leaving their D-zone on a breakout and up through the neutral zone. If you’re the last guy back for your team (that doesn’t have the puck), you might as well step in front of the last guy up the ice on the opposing team and slow his ability to join the play on offence. It cancels second and third wave attacks, it widens the gap between their forwards and D (which makes breakouts easier), it slows them down, it tires them out. It’s just a lot of good for a little rat-like effort.
Basically you’re testing a ref: if you’re gonna call a small crosscheck (the part of the cut-off Babs calls a “sting”) 100 feet from the puck you’re gonna have to put 100 guys in the box every night. (Hey, it’s not the job of coaches to preserve the quality of gameplay.)
It’s with the introduction to that term we swing back around to the Canucks and the Leafs, and note that if the Canucks don’t start cutting the Leafs off out of their own zone — if they don’t employ some stings — their defence is going to get eaten alive again Saturday night. It’s not so much that the Leafs themselves are unmanageable on the rush, it’s that any team is unmanageable if they’re allowed to fly up the ice with speed, and the Canucks’ D simply isn’t good enough to bear that burden alone. Defencemen often take the public lashings caused by half-committed forwards who allow the opposition to fly up the rink unimpeded.
To drive this point home, here’s how Keefe responded to a question about whether he saw more offensive pace from his group:
“I did. It was the best we looked in that regard just in terms of how we left our zone, how we got through the neutral zone, how quickly we moved the puck — all of those types of things. I thought it was really good for all four lines.
Our defence, even after going down to five D pretty much the whole game, I thought those guys did a really good job of moving the puck up very quickly to the forwards and getting involved in the offence themselves.”
I’m writing this from a Vancouver standpoint because this is an obvious strength for the Leafs, which means it should be a focus for the Canucks. Inattention there allowed Toronto’s skill to build momentum into the neutral zone, resulting in the Leafs out-chancing the Canucks 29-14, with an advantage in high-danger chances of 13-5.
I’ll just use the plays that resulted in goals as an example, given the direct cause-and-effect relationship, but cut-offs are important whether missing them leads to a chance against or not.
On the Leafs’ fourth goal Thursday night, they’re left to fly out of their own zone, in large part due to the huge gap between the Canucks forwards and defenders. But if Adam Gaudette in the middle of the ice even gets above one Leafs player (ideally the man in the middle, Travis Boyd) the whole things slows down and develops differently, likely denying a goal before it has a chance to play out.
It’s Boyd’s speed through the middle that pushes the Canucks D back and leaves the gap for Nic Petan to sauce one over to Jason Spezza.
On the Leafs’ third goal, they win a neutral zone faceoff and regroup, which means the Canucks are starting from assigned defensive positions. The Canucks use what looks like a 2-1-2 with pressure from the wings off a lost neutral zone draw, and Elias Pettersson drops back to stay above the middle guy.
Only, he doesn’t stay above the Leafs winger (a simple sting would’ve killed Marner’s momentum), who gets in behind him by a step, gets to the puck first, and makes a great play. But there’s no reason Marner shouldn’t have been cut-off, leaving Pettersson to the first touch on this chipped puck.
A less obvious one was early on Matthews’ first goal, where he was allowed to wheel behind the net and get his speed up before getting fortunate with how the play developed. JT Miller was covering back for his pinching defender; after the game he mentioned that because of that, he thought he’d be playing left D, with support on his right (he readily took the blame, but was just explaining his thinking). It wasn’t until too late he realized he was 1-on-1 defending Matthews.
That aside, Brock Boeser has the chance to go “oh-uh, this might not be an offensive situation anymore” deep in the Leafs territory, and step in front of Matthews as he winds up what looks like a dangerous break out early.
Watch right as Matthews cuts and jumps up from behind the net, you can see Boeser watching and hoping the play kicks back deep into the zone so he can play on the offensive side of things. He lets Matthews jump by him and get his speed up.
He’s not solely to blame of course, but he could’ve taken a step into Matthews’ lane to slow the freight train down. If Matthews is a half-stride slower I like Miller’s odds of influencing a worse shot attempt, and it’s a game of inches.
That’s all any of this comes down to. You don’t know when you’re positively impacting the play with a cut-off, which means you don’t get much praise for each individual effort. (Your coaches can’t watch everyone at once, and it’s behind the play, so not doing it often goes unpunished.) But it’s a little thing good teams do consistently that makes them so difficult to play against. It can be a slog against a fully bought-in team who slows you down all over the ice, like the best Boston Bruins teams have over the past decade.
The numbers in blue on the right show the bottom five in the NHL in goal-against-per-game. That’s the Canucks there, in 30th.
This Canucks D may not be the greatest, but I certainly don’t think they’re that bad. Their forwards have to help them out.
Even offensive juggernauts can be contained with good defensive commitment from every position. If the Canucks want better results on Saturday, they can start by asking the forwards to better defend out of the offensive zone.
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski and New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe remain undefeated in women’s doubles at the WTA Finals.
The 2023 U.S. Open champions, seeded second at the event, secured a 1-6, 7-6 (1), (11-9) super-tiebreak win over fourth-seeded Italians Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini in round-robin play on Tuesday.
The season-ending tournament features the WTA Tour’s top eight women’s doubles teams.
Dabrowski and Routliffe lost the first set in 22 minutes but levelled the match by breaking Errani’s serve three times in the second, including at 6-5. They clinched victory with Routliffe saving a match point on her serve and Dabrowski ending Errani’s final serve-and-volley attempt.
Dabrowski and Routliffe will next face fifth-seeded Americans Caroline Dolehide and Desirae Krawczyk on Thursday, where a win would secure a spot in the semifinals.
The final is scheduled for Saturday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on Nov. 5, 2024.
EDMONTON – Jake Allen made 31 saves for his second shutout of the season and 26th of his career as the New Jersey Devils closed out their Western Canadian road trip with a 3-0 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Monday.
Jesper Bratt had a goal and an assist and Stefan Noesen and Timo Meier also scored for the Devils (8-5-2) who have won three of their last four on the heels on a four-game losing skid.
The Oilers (6-6-1) had their modest two-game winning streak snapped.
Calvin Pickard made 13 stops between the pipes for Edmonton.
TAKEAWAYS
Devils: In addition to his goal, Bratt picked up his 12th assist of the young season to give him nine points in his last eight games and now 15 points overall. Nico Hischier remains in the team lead, picking up an assist of his own to give him 16 points for the campaign. He has a point in all but four games this season.
Oilers: Forward Leon Draisaitl was held pointless after recording six points in his previous two games and nine points in his previous four. Draisaitl usually has strong showings against the Devils, coming into the contest with an eight-game point streak against New Jersey and 11 goals in 17 games.
KEY MOMENT
New Jersey took a 2-0 lead on the power play with 3:26 remaining in the second period as Hischier made a nice feed into the slot to Bratt, who wired his third of the season past Pickard.
KEY RETURN?
Oilers star forward and captain Connor McDavid took part in the optional morning skate for the Oilers, leading to hopes that he may be back sooner rather than later. McDavid has been expected to be out for two to three weeks with an ankle injury suffered during the first shift of last Monday’s loss in Columbus.
OILERS DEAL FOR D-MAN
The Oilers have acquired defenceman Ronnie Attard from the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for defenceman Ben Gleason.
The 6-foot-3 Attard has spent the past three season in the Flyers organization seeing action in 29 career games. The 25-year-old right-shot defender and Western Michigan University grad was originally selected by Philadelphia in the third round of the 2019 NHL Entry Draft. Attard will report to the Oilers’ AHL affiliate in Bakersfield.
UP NEXT
Devils: Host the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday.
Oilers: Host the Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 4, 2024.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Patrick Mahomes threw for 291 yards and three touchdowns, and Kareem Hunt pounded into the end zone from two yards out in overtime to give the unbeaten Kansas City Chiefs a 30-24 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday night.
DeAndre Hopkins had two touchdown receptions for the Chiefs (8-0), who drove through the rain for two fourth-quarter scores to take a 24-17 lead with 4:17 left. But then Kansas City watched as Baker Mayfield led the Bucs the other way in the final minute, hitting Ryan Miller in the end zone with 27 seconds to go in regulation time.
Tampa Bay (4-5) elected to kick the extra point and force overtime, rather than go for a two-point conversion and the win. And it cost the Buccaneers when Mayfield called tails and the coin flip was heads. Mahomes and the Chiefs took the ball, he was 5-for-5 passing on their drive in overtime, and Hunt finished his 106-yard rushing day with the deciding TD plunge.
Travis Kelce had 14 catches for 100 yards with girlfriend Taylor Swift watching from a suite, and Hopkins finished with eight catches for 86 yards as the Chiefs ran their winning streak to 14 dating to last season. They became the sixth Super Bowl champion to start 8-0 the following season.
Mayfield finished with 200 yards and two TDs passing for the Bucs, who have lost four of their last five.
It was a memorable first half for two players who had been waiting to play in Arrowhead Stadium.
The Bucs’ Rachaad White grew up about 10 minutes away in a tough part of Kansas City, but his family could never afford a ticket for him to see a game. He wound up on a circuitous path through Division II Nebraska-Kearney and a California junior college to Arizona State, where he eventually became of a third-round pick of Tampa Bay in the 2022 draft.
Two year later, White finally got into Arrowhead — and the end zone. He punctuated his seven-yard scoring run in the second quarter, which gave the Bucs a 7-3 lead, by nearly tossing the football into the second deck.
Then it was Hopkins’ turn in his first home game since arriving in Kansas City from a trade with the Titans.
The three-time All-Pro, who already had caught four passes, reeled in a third-down heave from Mahomes amid triple coverage for a 35-yard gain inside the Tampa Bay five-yard line. Three plays later, Mahomes found him in the back of the end zone, and Hopkins celebrated his first TD with the Chiefs with a dance from “Remember the Titans.”
Tampa Bay tried to seize control with consecutive scoring drives to start the second half. The first ended with a TD pass to Cade Otton, the latest tight end to shred the Chiefs, and Chase McLaughlin’s 47-yard field goal gave the Bucs a 17-10 lead.
The Chiefs answered in the fourth quarter. Mahomes marched them through the rain 70 yards for a tying touchdown pass, which he delivered to Samaje Perine while landing awkwardly and tweaking his left ankle, and then threw a laser to Hopkins on third-and-goal from the Buccaneers’ five-yard line to give Kansas City the lead.
Tampa Bay promptly went three-and-out, but its defence got the ball right back, and this time Mayfield calmly led his team down field. His capped the drive with a touchdown throw to Miller — his first career TD catch — with 27 seconds to go, and Tampa Bay elected to play for overtime.
UP NEXT
Buccaneers: Host the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday.
